The Anger and Hostility of Strangers

Recently I have come under the attack of a stranger from online whom I have never met. The nasty “anonymous” posts are from him. I don’t think he realized how much I know about computers and it was easy for me to trace his obsessive attacks back to him.

CREEPY INTERNET CREEPS

I know that it’s a risk to be so public with your life, but I’m not going to be scared just because there are a few psychos out there. It’s my world, too, you know.

So the story is that this guy contacted me a long time ago because of a personal ad. I think it was through Gaydar. He lives in Brazil and he seemed like an interesting guy who shared very similar taste in music with me. That was pretty much the only commonality.

Slowly, he began popping me hateful messages out of nowhere. Then he would retract them and say he was “testing” me. He would occasionally praise me for how well I managed his attacks and insults. I found this slightly disturbing, but just rolled with it.

He then began pushing cult and satanist sites onto me, sending or IMing me links and images of a gothic nature. No big deal.

Then he started getting more hostile and more threatening, randomly cursing me and insulting me. I would always respond with patience, or ignore it until it passed.

I know I should have cut it off a long time ago, but I let people go absolutely off the charts before I consider they aren’t worth my time. It takes me a long time for me to draw the line. Besides, he was just a stranger, really, and it wasn’t affecting me that much.

So recently, he discovered the music part of my site and he was elated with joy. He was so excited and had all kinds of praises and suggestions. His praises eventually fell by the wayside as he became more and more obsessed with my implementing the changes he insisted I make. He wanted me to redesign everything, put up a huge amount of music, charge people money to listen to it, and on and on… I thanked him for his suggestions and told him I hoped to one day have time to really make the site even nicer, but I explained that the music part is just a gift to my clients and friends. The music wasn’t intended to be a source of income.

Quickly he began to spiral out of control with attacks and insults. As part of his threats, he has registered false identities as me and has spammed satanist and cult web site forums with my email and web site links, inciting these people to react. He then discovered my blog and began posting his insults here. When Nick spoke up against this guy’s behavior, the stranger then popped me an IM threatening me to be prepared for “the nuclear bomb.” Soon, my computer was being “bombed” with a massive swarm of viruses. Luckily, I am fairly computer savvy, so it was no big deal, with everything caught and no harm done.

In what I assume was his final attempt to enforce a change to my site’s music play list, he posted an insult against my recent Esthero entry and then posted his proposed play list, to which Cyprus responded, telling him to get a life.

Tonight, the stranger has now explained that he is going to do everything in his power to make everyone believe that the work I do is a scam.

And all because I would NOT redesign the music part of my site to his standards?!

What the… ???!!! I mean, please… how in the world does someone have this kind of time? To stalk a stranger on the INTERNET, for god’s sake, and then spend all of your energy trying to attack and destroy that stranger? I just don’t get it. And I’ve never even met this creepy creep!

Along with my friends, I am sometimes thoroughly startled by the kind of people who come out of the wood work just to be obsessively hostile toward me. Seriously, it is really creepy and no one understands why or how this shit happens. For instance, I was walking down the street a few years ago in a small, Wisconsin town. An old man driving a Cadillac leaned far over into the passenger’s seat, so much so that he was swerving, just so he could FLIP ME OFF through his window! Out of NOWHERE! I swear to god. Amazing.

On the other hand, my life would probably have ended LONG ago if it wasn’t for the kindness and compassion of strangers and friends, so as usual, the assholes of the world will pale compared to the sweetness and light.

But for now, I have drawn the line on this guy. His entries will now be deleted as he posts them and I will respond to him no more. He has been blacklisted from my messengers and from my email. I have alerted him to this, and his response was threatening, but I have to do it.

Some people are just plain scary.

What the fuck is going ON with people this year? Has everyone gone mad?!